


Burning the Kernel at Both Ends

by Surya_Rolt



Category: Alex Rider (TV 2020), Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: Alex Rider Needs a Hug, Big Sisters, Canon Compliant, Family Feels, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light-Hearted, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, TV Series, Wholesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:34:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27586159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Surya_Rolt/pseuds/Surya_Rolt
Summary: Amidst the preparations for his mission to Point Blanc, Alex Rider finds himself being gifted one last night of normalcy by his oldest friend and newest guardian, Jack Starbright. (Set just before Alex heads off the the Friend’s household to go undercover.)I just finished the Alex Rider TV series and I was a big fan of the books. Really excited to see it continue but I just wanted a little bit more of Jack and Alex’s relationship to come through. In the meantime, have fun with this light and low key one-shot because I'm a sucker for cute found family shenanigans especially in the context of pseudo sibling dynamics.(Best read before bed for the fullest wholesome experience)
Relationships: Alex Rider & Jack Starbright
Comments: 14
Kudos: 24





	Burning the Kernel at Both Ends

“We’ll pick you up tomorrow morning at 8:00am sharp.”

Mrs Jones’ voice was crisp and curt in a similar way to Siri’s; directional and to the point, without room for further questions.

“Have your things ready to go in the bag we provided for Alex Friend.”

Alex just nodded politely, too tired and frustrated to commit to much else. Mrs Jones took the acknowledgement, settling back in her seat to continue staring out the window. Her hands were gently clenched as she folded them across her chest. She had probably done this sort of briefing a thousand times before but he guessed she’d never done so with a high schooler. Her discomfort with that fact was evident but any doubts she had, she kept to herself.

Just like his uncle had.

The thought nestled into his brain. He attempted to shoo it away but it simply caused more disturbing thoughts to replace it. Like how he’d had to do the same for Tom earlier. The way his friend had held back his anger and hurt had stung . For every accusation slung his way, he was forced into giving weak and dissatisfying answers to the guy who’d been his best mate and top tier confidant for most of his life. Pushing him away was the best way to keep him safe from it all, so he didn’t have police or social security bashing down his door on bogus charges. That didn’t mean that it didn’t feel wrong.

The slick black car slowed to as stop as it sidled up next to the curb just across from his house. Through the dark, he could see the lights on inside. However as his stomach informed him, it was dinner time, so not as much time had passed during the secret spy meeting as he had initially assumed.

Without a word, he collected up his school bag and cracked open the car door.

“Alex - “

Halfway out of the car, he turned to see Mrs Jones looking at him, her face the picture of conflict. She breathed in once, then twice as if trying to get the right words out before she settled with, “Get some rest. You’ll need it for tomorrow.”

“Was already planning to,” he sighed, closing the door with the determination to forget about his new “spy life” for the next 12 hours.

As he waltzed to the front door, he noticed the bins overflowing with bags from all the clothing shops Jack had been to. He smiled to himself, the day out having been strangely fun with Jack rushing him around to all the expensive stores she normally couldn’t afford to buy from. The pseudo mundanity of the activity was reassuring. Jack was just taking him to get his hair cut, like she had always done since he was a kid. As if prompted by the thought, he ruffled up his hair, desperately trying to get it to sit properly in it’s new shape. Then he fished for his keys to unlock the door.

The first thing Alex noticed was the smell of something burning.

His exhausted brain switched into a higher gear for a split second, rushing down the corridor with his phone at the ready to dial emergency fire services. With the fire alarm and smoke wafting through the sitting room, Alex was ready to seize Jack and whatever else he could shove into his backpack and throw himself straight back out the door. But as he approached the kitchen, he begun to hear beats of music over the alarm’s incessant beeping.

He stumbled into the kitchen to see Jack stood on top of a chair, frantically waving a kitchen cloth at the device on the ceiling. The scene was mildly amusing but the noise was far too much for Alex to handle in that moment. He briskly walked over, shoving headphones into his ears before waving at Jack to let him up. She nodded, quickly stepping down to let him reach up to switch it off. It had only been in the last two years that he’d over shot her in height and she forgot about it often enough to warrant her look of surprise. Nowadays, Alex would use this to his advantage to nab whatever confectionary Jack would store away in her old hidey hole on top of the fridge.

The beeping suddenly cut out, leaving only the sound of decently loud music and an irregular popping sound coming from the wok. Jack shuffled over to it, switching it off and takin a big sigh of relief, sinking into the breakfast bar behind her.

“Hey sweetie, welcome home,” she said dryly, waving her hand at him as she stared up at the ceiling, looking almost as drained as he felt. With her phone in hand, she dialled the music down enough so that they could talk without shouting at one another.

“Jack, what’s going on - “

As soon as he spoke, he noticed the strangeness of it all. The stove was actually on. And something was actually being cooked in it.

“Woah, woah wait a second,” he said, inching closer to the wok like I was a ticking time bomb. “Is that... food? As in food that you cooked?”

“I’ll ignore the tone, but yes. Yes it is,” she said, still from her position of half leaning, half lying on the breakfast bar.

The smoke was already starting to dissipate but as Alex cracked open the lid, more billowed out. He coughed, backing up to cover his nose.

“Well I hope you have a back up plan for dinner because I can’t even tell what it was anymore,” he said, already moving to open up the sliding doors and windows. Jack followed suite shortly afterwards as she constructed her rebuttal.

“No no no, you don’t get to say that after roasting me for getting take out. Tonight, we don’t con-scribe to those double standards,” she said, walking back across the room to check on her other groceries. A few bags sat on the counter, some with packets of chips, others with fresh fruit and vegetables. But just one was smaller than the others and mostly empty aside from the thin rectangular shape inside of it.

As Jack mourned the loss of whatever was cooking in the wok, Alex walked over to the table top and unraveled the bag, revealing a DVD. On it’s cover stood a cartoon man with an oversized trench coat and a helicopter hat. Alex’s brain immediately recognised the character and a nostalgic impulse made him chuckle.

“Jack, is this - “

“I knew you’d like that,” she said, a subtle knowing grin spreading across her lips. “It was on sale at the check out so I thought we could do a movie night tonight, just the two of us.”

Alex was still glued to the DVD cover, inspecting the childish characters as if everything was written in a foreign language (well, at least one he hadn’t learnt) _. Inspector Gadget_ , he recalled. When Jack had first moved into the house, he hadn’t known what to think of her. As a 9 year old boy living with his emotionally distant uncle, he’d been highly suspicious of everything she did, worried that she was trying to replace Ian. But soon after she had introduced him to the old cartoon series, they’d bonded over the experience, watching 2 or 3 episodes every evening as his uncle worked in the study until late.

As a college student, he couldn’t imagine that she’d done so out of the pure enjoyment of the series. Now he had begun to truly appreciate the effort she’d taken to put him at ease when he was a kid.

“So what did you try to make?” He called out again, moving to sit on an available stool.

Jack halted what she was doing for a moment, long enough to cause Alex to look up from the DVD cover. Her arms were folded with a tight lipped smile she was attempting to hide with her hand.

“... promise not to laugh?” She probed, side eyeing him from behind her frizzy hair.

“I promise to do my best,” he replied, now intently curious.

She raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged, spreading his arms in a casual sign of surrender.

“Damn it, I’ll have to dispose of the evidence anyways,” she took a deep breath, now completely obscuring her face with her hand.

“Popcorn,” she muttered quickly.

Alex was silently fighting his facial muscles to remain clenched. If he spoke, he was certain that the flood gates would open. More worried about his silence than his judgement, Jack peeked out from between her fingers to gauge his reaction. He was red in the face from the strain of holding it in. But as soon as they had locked eyes for a second too long, he exploded into raucous fits of laughter.

“Hey, come on you promised!” She shot back, finding herself chuckling along with him.

“I tired, I swear!” His breaths were coming in wheezes now as he braced himself against the table. “But.. you almost burnt the house down... over popcorn...”

“Like you could’ve any better!” She exclaimed. “Look, I bought a back up microwave packet, alright? Dinner is safe.”

Alex rubbed his eyes in an attempt to regain his composure. “Maybe I should be the one to set the timer - “ he chuckled in between breaths, reaching for the popcorn packet.

Jack lightly slapped him with it, poking and prodding him out of the kitchen.

“I can handle a damn microwave, you cheeky, little - “ a string of affectionate muffled curses fell from her mouth as she gained back ground in the kitchen. “Divide and conquer; you go check if that DVD is working and I’ll get this corn popped.”

With that, she turned on her heel, flicking her hair at him as she did. Alex took the DVD to the living room, holding his sides as he recovered from the fit. Unravelling the plastic wrapping and booting up the player, he couldn’t stop himself from giggling and muttering, “Bloody popcorn...”

“I CAN HEAR YOU,” Jack blurted from the kitchen, to which Alex scrunched his face with even more effort as the retort beckoned the laughter out of him. After a moment of blank luminescence, the screen flickered to life and the title music began playing over the menu select.

“You can hear that too, right?” He called back.

“Woo, now we’re in business!” Came the muffled reply as the microwave bleeped, nagging for their attention.

Soon, the two of them were curled up on the sofa, a bowl of absolutely satisfactory popcorn sitting between them. The screen flooded the warmly lit room with blue light and the sound of muted munching claimed the familiar space. Nothing at all like the reverberant warehouse he’d been forcefully taken to just a couple of days prior. The recent memory tugged at him, threatening to drag him back down into anxious thoughts for what lay ahead.

Then as Jack reached her hand down for another handful of popcorn, he felt her nudge him, pointing to the screen and saying, “You loved this bit as a kid. You’d get me to replay it so many times!” And instead, his brain refocused on the screen; refocused on the recollection of the animation and of a different time. A time of safety and simplicity that he felt comfortable reliving.

“Oh yeah, I remember,” was the extent of his response. It wasn’t an unenthusiastic or unengaged response. Just a relaxed one, and that was something he hadn’t properly felt in days.

“I’d hope so. Because of you, I know it frame by frame,” Jack piped up again, quickly throwing him a teasing smirk.

Alex suddenly felt immensely lucky to catch it, staring at her with a far more gentle smile than he was used to wearing. In all the time he’d known her, Jack had never seemed to change. For the last 6 years, she had always been a terrible cook, an impeccable dresser, a bright eyed law student and the closest thing he had to an older sister. Even when both of their world’s were falling apart, she was still all of those things; she was still Jack when he needed her the most.

In a split second of clarity, Alex soon realised that he hadn’t felt this kind of warmth and security since his uncle’s death and that that may have been the reason that the house had almost burned down earlier that evening. As the credits of the pilot episode begun to scroll down the screen, he shifted himself to face her. Noticing this, she paused the DVD before the next episode started playing, moving the bowl of popcorn back to the coffee table.

“What’s up?” She said, resting her arm on the back of the sofa.

Alex paused, breathing in and out like Mrs Jones had done before in the car. Normally, he wasn’t the one to initiate ‘deep and meaningful’ conversations. However, he knew that Jack wouldn’t be the one to bring up anything too heavy tonight, before his ‘big spy field trip.’

“Jack, thanks for everything. I didn’t know how much I needed this,” he started.

“It would’ve been perfect had the other popcorn idea panned out,” she replied half joking, her voice steady and calm. “But I’m glad you’re feeling better, Alex.”

He nodded. “Much...”

Jack didn’t miss a beat. “But...”

He breathed in again, meeting her curious eyes.

“Jack, are doing alright?”

She blinked at him.

Once.

Twice.

Then scratched her head and looked down at the floor with a chuckle.

“Things have been... a lot recently. Like a LOT, a lot,” she started and Alex shook his head, signalling that he couldn’t agree more. “But with everything going on with you and _you know who_ , I guess it just hasn’t hit me yet, y’know?”

Alex sighed, appreciating the comparison of Alan Blunt to Lord Voldemort. He almost understood what Jack meant but couldn’t quite feel it himself. Personally, he felt the full weight of every revelation he’d been slapped in the face with that week. It was too hard for him to avoid. And then there was Jack, calmly extracting information from Mrs Jones about Ian and his spy life, continuing to buy the groceries and sort the laundry and buy him clothes...

...she was still continuing to be Jack, without breaking down and sobbing at any given opportunity. He couldn’t help but hope that she wasn’t holding it all in for his sake.

“I sort of get that,” he replied. “What will you do tomorrow?”

The real question lay just out of sight in his statement. _What will you do tomorrow without me?_

She tapped her fingers on the pillow in front of her, staring at them.

“Well, we’ve gotta make sure you have everything you need before you go. After that, I’ve got a load of laundry to do and now I’ve given myself some dishes to wash up...”

“And after that,” Alex pried, worried for the answer.

“After that... It might hit me. Maybe I’ll call up my sister, tell her the bad news,” she continued in a more subdued tone. She raised her eyebrow as another thought popped into her head. “Then call up my parents and tell them the good news.”

Alex leaned in closer, bewildered that there had been anything close to good news for them in the last few days.

“What on _earth_ is the good news?” He asked.

She looked back up at him, smiling a little more before moving to get up.

“Wait here,” she said softy, rummaging through a drawer to the side of the entrance. She returned with a piece of elegant looking paper, with a few signatures and curly letters on it. Jack sat back down on the sofa and handed it to him. Before he’d even started reading it, he knew what it was.

“I graduated,” Jack finished the thought for him. “On the same day that everything happened. It just hasn’t felt right to bring it up.”

Alex studied the paper, shocked that she’d kept something like this on the down low for so long. The first thing he managed to say was, “So that take out the other night was actually to celebrate.”

“Well yeah, sort of. If I’m being honest, cooking food myself feels more like the special occasion around here,” she said, gesturing to the popcorn. He finally put the piece of paper down and looked back up at her. Although his first instinct should’ve been to congratulate her, another instinct took its place as he fretted over the implications of what her new degree meant for her permanency here.

“That’s... fantastic news,” he tried, the sentence tumbling out awkwardly.

“Alex,” she said firmly, reaching down to squeeze his hands, her face more serious than it had been before. “I chose to stay here long before I got that piece of paper. Visas be damned when it comes to family.”

An immense surge of relief coursed through him as he realised that not only was she staying but that she wasn’t just staying out of obligation. He let go of her hands and slowly went to wrap them around her shoulders, as she caught him around the middle. They stayed like that, quietly rocking back and forth. She squeezed him tighter one more time.

As Alex untangled himself, he heard Jack sniffle and watched her reach up and wipe her nose with her sleeve. He soon realised that his shoulder was ever so slightly damp.

“Is it hitting you now?” He asked, casually using the sleeve of his school shirt to wipe whatever concoction of snot and tears was currently seeping into his shoulder.

“Yeah, a little,” she said, her voice a pitch higher that it usually was as she breathed in in little hiccups.

“That’s also good news, right?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Hah - yes, definitely good news,” she agreed in the half way point between a laugh and a sob. As the two settled back into a comfortable silence, Alex picked up the remote and gestured to the paused screen.

“One more episode, then bed?” He prompted.

“Hit it,” Jack said, sinking further into the cushions of the couch.

The night came to a close and Alex felt waves of exhaustion sweep him up as echoes of Mrs Jones’ Siri - like voice chided him to get some rest. Part of him knew what that meant - it meant that everything would become real tomorrow. It meant that he was officially involved.

But even as they packed up the popcorn and DVDs, even as he sauntered upstairs to bed, and even as he was staring at the suitcase the agency had provided for him, Alex felt at ease. Because even if tomorrow morning changed everything, he knew that when all was said and done, he would always have Jack Starbright’s terrible, terrible cooking to come home to.


End file.
